Wow.  As the blog posts and signs continue to roll in, I am overwhelmed by the creativity, humor, and insight you’ve brought to the Rally to Restore Unity. In fact, today’s round-up might just the best so far. I really hope you will take the time to read through the posts—some of which brought me to tears.

Thanks to all who have participated so far. Just two days left!

Earlier Today:

Jamie The Very Worst Missionary with “Ask Yourself…”

Total Raised for Charity:Water:

$1,417 You will notice that I changed the goal to $2500. (More on that tomorrow!) In the meantime, donate.

Signs and Synchroblog Posts:

Bethany Bassett with “eucharift”
“Our church doesn’t officially celebrate Christmas. I’ve heard of other churches that choose not to as well, most citing pagan or consumerist holiday origins as the reason, but ours shies away from it for the opposite reason: it’s too religious. More specifically, it’s too Catholic…” [This is a beautiful post!Keep reading.]

Matthew Cook with “Three Farmers”

Susie Finkbeiner with “Robert Frost’s Bloom”

Carolyn Frantz with “Church Unity: United Methodist or Untied Methodist?”
“In marriage, couples often say that they have the same fight over and over again. The same thing is happening to us. Though we think we are fighting over the primacy of Scripture, it is really about the tension in our relationships with one another.”

("Because you can't argue if you're stuffing your face.")

Kathy Escobar with “The Golden Rule”
“When we have nothing to prove, we are released to love others more freely, more fully.  No agenda.  No bullying.  Just a desire for mutual respect.”

Hannah C. with “Trying to Reach the Same Lord”
“We all say the same creed, together in harmony, expressing the same sentiments, though the words may twist into different orders. We all try to reach the same Lord, through tears and laughter and the smokescreens of this world, theology, and our own inescapable perspectives. We are all muddling our way through.”

Dan Allen with “Thanks to My Unlikely Friend” and “Promoting Unity: A Troubleshooting Guide”

Hannah Mudge with “Rally to Restore Unity”

Carrien with “We Were Sisters”
“That day undid me. I could never dismiss another's faith again, as I had so glibly in the past, because, they might be sisters, or brothers. God didn't seem to need them to agree with me in order to speak to them and tell them he loves them, in a way that they know, deep down, that it's true… Later when I met my father in law I became familiar with a saying of his in his book Authority to Heal and it rang true from my experience. 'God seems to be willing to transmit on any antenna we put up.' If God isn't picky, who am I to be?"

 Carl Jones with “Down In Flames”

Justin Woodall (the Futon Reformer) with “A Cry for Disunity (well, kind of…but not really)”
"So what are we to do with all of this unity, all of this disharmony. Let’s be honest, everyone is in favor of unity. It falls on the list right below motherhood and apple pie. But at the same time, the idea of every Christian joining hands and giving the world a great big hug doesn’t seem realistic…"

Lauren Sheil with “All in the Family”

David N. with “What Unity Means When You Have No Other Choice”
“In our rural small town of Greenville, Ohio we don’t have the luxury of leaving a church when we don’t agree with its teachings in favor of going to the trendier church across town. We don’t have any new-fangled Emergent churches out here in the cornfields, so if you plan to attend church here and consider yourself in any way progressive, you will have to compromise and figure out how to love and learn from people you disagree with. Or just get bitter. We sometimes do both.”

Michael Mock with “Rally to Restore Unity: An Outside Perspective”

Sister Lisa with “There Are No Master’s Pets”

Nikki Cox with “Practical Unity in a Wonderfully Diversified Faith”

Cortney Dale with “Rally to Restore Unity Post – The Sequel”

Lisa Mamula with “Love, Hate, and the Other”

Preston Yancey with [Insert Inflammatory and Misleading Title Here]

Jennifer Luitwieler with “Of Swallows and Softballs”
“Kids are like that; because they want to play, and because they long for peace, they can experience anger, hurt and forgiveness in the time it takes to play an inning of softball… Do you see? Believers are on the same team: neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female…We can leave it in the dugout or we can waste a game with our differences.”

Amy B. with “A Party Pooper’s Take on Christian Unity”

Kristen (Rage Against the Minivan) with “Rally to Restore Unity”

Jeremy Riley with “We Are Not Our Own”

Alex Matthews with “Just Drive Already”
"Let’s assume that we’re all wrong. Let’s never stop questioning, but more importantly, let’s start living the way we’re supposed to."

Jessica Mokrzycki with “Rally to Restore Unity”
“…It is enough to be united with people in love and in the Holy Spirit…where there is a sincere desire for truth and real good will and genuine love, there God Himself will take care of the differences far better than any human or political ingenuity can…” - Thomas Merton

Paul Robinson with “Rally to Restore Unity: A Blogging Call for Christian Unity”

David Ozab with “Just Catholic”

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If your post hasn't been featured yet, LINK HERE, in the comment section. And try to get it up by Friday at 5 p.m., as I'd like to do some kind of "best of" on Saturday.